Pet #95,456, yet another mammal....

I am on a 'no more mammals unless I give birth to it' kick. I'm done with the dogs. Love them, just not ever going to get anymore, I'm done with them. I was over chinchillas before moving back to San Diego in 2000, Smidgen is well over 10 years old and can't possibly be long for this world. In the meantime his cage is being used as a stand for 2 new vivariums. My new motto is 'pets only in vivarium form'. If I can't seal them up in a glass box I'm not interested.

Of course there was that whole 'grandmother in San Diego bought the child a rat' thing. Remember me blathering on about that? Well since grandmother did not want to pony up the $75 to ship said rat home with the child we, thankfully, dodged that bullet. Not completely though. The bargain was when the child got home we'd get her a critter of her choice. As long as it wasn't a rat or a hamster. I hate hamsters, they bite. She had her heart set in a guinea pig. I'm oddly ok with that. Then again, even though I don't like rats or hamsters, I've always had a thing for rodents.

So this past Friday (yesterday) I took the child to the pet store and let her pick out a rodent. We already had a guinea pig cage from when we first moved to Texas 4 years ago. I got rid of the chinchilla cage in San Diego with the hopes of deciding on a new bigger one out here. I bought the guinea pig cage as a temp while I ordered Smidge his massive condo. The temp cage has since been stored in the garage. When the kid found out we already owned a cage for a guinea pig she just about had a fit of delight. It basically set the deal in stone. She was waffling between the pig, a bunny (I've raised dwarf holland lops before, I don't want to again), or a turtle (I would have talked her into a tortoise). The guinea pig was by far the lesser of many evils. Many evils. Did you know hermit crabs stink? Yeah we got off easy.

So even though we need another pet like we need another hole in the head (did I mention a friend of mine is giving my hubby 2 of the gray banded king snakes he's always wanted? No? Yeah...) we now have a guinea pig. Named Topf. She's a girl, black with gray and white. I'll get a picture of her when I get off my lazy duff. BTW Topf is the name of an Earth Bender from Avatar, the last Air Bender, the kid's new fav cartoon.